V. Indu Prakash, all of 16, kept jumping in glee after castling a batsman at a state cricket camp on the LIC grounds in Kadma here on Tuesday.

The intellectually impaired all-rounder from Jamshedpur, along with five others from Jharkhand, are fine-tuning their cricket in the lead-up to the national training camp at Jalawar in Rajasthan from November 2 to 6.

The Rajasthan camp will decide if Indu, as well as Dhanbad’s 17-year-olds Aniket Gupta and Rahul Kumar Das, Ranchi’s Bhupender Oraon, 22, and Subhan Bajoria, 18, and Bokaro’s Iqbal Hussain, 21, have earned their India caps for the Asian Pacific Cricket Championship at Chennai in January next year.

The six cricketers, who have gone to special schools in their respective towns, had been selected for the national camp in Rajasthan after Special Olympics Jharkhand (SOJ) held a selection trial earlier this month in Jamshedpur.

The special boys, who have played near their homes and with tennis or soft balls, showed promise, SOJ assistant srea director Satbir Singh Sahota said. “They all have natural talent. Indu Prakash, Rahul and Iqbal are all-rounders. Aniket and Bhupender are batsmen. Subhan is a medium pacer,” he said. “Would you believe it, they are playing with cricket balls for the first time?”

Sahota added that as these were special boys, organisers had to be extra careful about their safety and so the youths had donned full cricketing gear, including helmet, pads, gloves, abdomen guard and bowling shoes.

“Since cricket ball is being used at the camp, it is necessary to keep the boys safe from injury. They are gearing up on both turf and concrete pitches. The boys are working hard for the national camp in Rajasthan. Fingers crossed about their selection prospects,” Sahota added.

Though Sahota praised all the six boys, he singled out Indu Prakash. “He’s the one to watch out for,” Sahota said about the Jamshedpur lad who used to go to Asha Kiran.

The Jharkhand contingent leaves for Rajasthan on October 31.

Coaches Ashutosh Kumar Mishra from Jamshedpur and Vidya Sagar from Bokaro will accompany the special boys as mentors. “We will see our boys off at the station and wish them the very best,” Sahota said.